More Americans, by far, have contracted COVID-19 than the citizens of any other country in the world.
More Americans, by far, have died from COVID-19 than the citizens of any other country in the world.
More than 66% of Americans believe that Donald Trump is doing a poor job handling the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 74% of Americans believe that Donald Trump is taking America in the wrong direction.
America currently has a higher unemployment rate than most other developed nations.
Yet, on average, polls show Donald Trump still has the backing of more than 40% of Americans.
Please, can anyone help me understand why that is and why Trump still has a chance to be re-elected in November?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Written for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill. We are asked to start our post with the word “more.”
This, That, and the Other 
Because holding onto the past has made people fearful and hateful. We have forgotten our ingenuity and when that happens people settle.
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I say this only in a completely neutral sense….I think that politics here in the UK showed politicians and the media that polls were no longer accurately gauging results. I know some people know their own mind and nothing seems to change their convictions. But there are others who are more open minded. In a way I guess it is them that all the canvassing is designed to win over. At the end of the day…what a person thinks and how a person feels on the day they have to make a decision indicates the decision they make. So trying to predict how millions of people on the day they make their decision is becoming more unreliable.
I might be wrong, but from an outsiders point of view, it still seems that American politics is still more about whether someone identifies with republican or democrat ideology rather than the individual representatives. I may have that wrong. But it does seem some people’s allegiance to an organisation is not tarnished by what one person does and does not do. I don’t know is the answer.
I certainly don’t want to comment on American politics, (mainly because that would be like walking into a minefield) and also because here in the UK, we have a very British media coverage of the American election. I think the media coverage here (well I watch the BBC) is not strongly biased. I think most of the coverage shows how divided America is politically, more than trying to take a side. At the end of the day the UK have no say in the election results. The BBC are supposed to be neutral in UK politics so I don’t think they are supposed to be trying in influence anyone here. However, there are still plenty of reports on what has been tweeted or said in press-conferences…and of course there are plenty scratching their heads at the state of politics in general.
I am neutral, but I will say this, whoever wins the election has a huge challenge. I think that politicians in general are going to make more drastic dramatic decisions…in what they view as the pursuit for stability, peace/security, maintaining order, providing for people’s basic needs. There are so many divisive issues on home soil, and gathering turbulence internationally. I suspect that we will see the UN becoming more of a utilised tool. I think that politicians will look at where they can mine resources from other wealthy entities and organisations. I think there will be more division than ever before.
I don’t mean this exclusively of American politics, as I think every country has huge challenges, but the big players on the world stage are more under the spotlight than anyone else. No matter who is in the role of president…I think that there are enormous challenges ahead and I would not want to be in their shoes at all. At all!!!
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You’re right that a lot of Americans vote strictly along party lines, but when the head of the party is incompetent, inept, and potentially delusional, not to mention sexists, racist, nationalistic, and motivated by unenlightened self-interests, as is Donald Trump, people should not just blindly vote along party lines.
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He talks nationalist speak, but a lot of what he does can only be explained as working for the enemy (foreign autocratic totalitarian-type governmental tyrants).
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Why did you only state his better characteristics when there are so many more disgusting one? Can you tell where I stand on tRump?
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It’s really too depressing to itemize all that is wrong with him.
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I agree. It is a sad time in our history.
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Because there is a world of differences between the three Americas we live in. Large cities tend to be democrat because people see the direct impact, or lack thereof, of social policies. They are affected directly by the drug crisis, mental health crisis, homelessness crisis, and every other crisis our polices have created. It affects their commute to work, their homes, personal safety, and the lives of their friends, family, and neighbors. They see the results of not caring for one another, and so they live, for the most part, in a “Yes, I am my brother’s keeper” mentality where the life of one directly impacts their world.
Now, juxtapose life in the large city with the primarily republican rural area. Here, homelessness is a personal flaw to be dealt with by law enforcement and state agency, after all, that’s why we pay taxes, right? It is easy to cast everything onto the individual. Drugs, mental health issues, etc. are easily cast aside to the direct family of that individual and it remains in their family until it becomes a law enforcement issue. Rural areas are less likely to see anything because population density means their lives revolve around their farm or small neighborhood. The sense of community is strong in the older generation because that is all the world they need. Rural areas tend to be information deserts. All information comes from local news channels or talk radio or a weekly newspaper. In this world, the liberalization of America is a real, direct threat to their way of life. Even in this health crisis, it has turned into a “but we’re not a big city, so why punish us for their problems.” Individual and family comes first, followed by immediate community. They live by the freedom of the individual and do not believe they are their brother’s keeper. Racism runs strong in rural America because everything is a threat to their way of life, which is why Trump’s policies and words resonate with them. Policies are designed to help the majority of American’s, which just happen to live in urban areas, is more diverse, and hold different values. For the 8 years under Obama, they stewed in their own hatred of the outside world, much like the Germans did in the interwars period. In those conditions, nationalism can sound like the plan they’ve been waiting for.
The third America comes from both rural and urban areas and carries with them whichever attributes they resonated with and cling to them as a badge of honor. The third America is the young. Many rural children grow up without internet, but that is dwindling. Their world is not limited to their neighborhood, town, or even state. With a push of a key, they can watch videos from around the world, talk to people who live in Timbuktu, and prove their close-minded parents and communities wrong. They are a direct threat to rural America. Rural American parents funnel boys into sports, girls into Boys & Girls clubs to “protect” them. Urban parents try the best they can based on their socio-economic status. This group of America is more connected than ever before and, depending on how they were raised, either see right through Trump’s lies (and the media’s lies) or they buy it hook, line, and sinker because that’s what they’ve been taught. Hate and distrust is taught in all races, genders, and sexualities and it is in this America we see the clash between the ideologies the strongest.
Is there a chance he wins again? Yes, a strong chance. Humans don’t like the unknown and change. We’d rather complain about what we have rather than deal with the process of change. That’s why the incumbent in most things wins. A democrat will threaten rural America, a republican will threaten urban America. News channels pick and choose who they interview to make fun of the other America and viewers eat it up. Making fun of the young who don’t know the name of some 50s musician while not showing older generations not knowing the name of today’s musicians. Making fun of Trump’s base who truly believe that the government has lied to them (they have and everyone knows it, but about different topics). Showing peaceful protests only after the police have attacked (in some cases) or defended (in some cases) is only showing the story they want to tell. Social media and the Internet allows individuals to create their own bubble where only things that they agree with get through, creating a personal feedback loop. It brainwashes both democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives. Until individuals break that cycle, the tale of the three Americas will continue.
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You make very valid points, but what has Trump done for those who live in rural America? For the farmers? For the miners? For those barely scraping by. He’s done nothing for them but spew empty promises. Everything he has done has served only the very wealthy and his cronies. Oh, and yes, the religious right. But if they really take the time to think about whether they are better off today than they were in 2016, they should not re-elect Trump.
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Since I live in rural America, here’s how they see it. He removed “red tape” and “supported the farmer” by eliminating many environmental policies implemented by Obama to improve air and water quality in the cities. Miners are biting at the bit to get back to work by shifting the nation’s energy back to non-renewable sources (it’s jobs over environment). They are excited by the prospects of more mines opening up on former state and federal land. It comes back to “Does the land belong to the people or to the government?” Rural america believes the land belongs to the people, after all, it was people who settled (and tamed, remember roots run deep) the land west of the Mississippi. Republicans don’t care about the ones scraping by. Most are, first and foremost, personal responsibility and family. That’s why they believe, “federal student aid should only go to career fields” and “food stamps should be so hard to get it forces people to work” and “healthcare is individual responsibility not communal right.” In their eyes, his words have not been empty promises. His policies have hurt their enemies–the moochers who live off others because they refuse to accept personal responsibility. Democrats tend to live in a world of gray where everything touches everything else and is symbiotic. Republicans tens to live in a world of black and white where it’s me or them. The emphasis on personal responsibility and obligation only to the local community creates both a feeling of well-being and connectedness based on those shared values but also one of inflated self-worth (mixed with religion creates the “God’s preference”). They are thinking about it in but only in the terms they know. Just as democrats are. Many democrats have never been out of the city and don’t know how much individual reliance and faith in your neighbors are needed to succeed and thrive in rural areas. There are many counties in Kansas without a hospital, a dentist, cell phone service, vet offices, and the like. America looks very different to different people. What Trump says resonates with rural America who are tired of living under policies designed for the greater good which makes life harder for them.
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Thanks, Teresa, for providing this perspective. I guess the people you described don’t recognize how his programs represent welfare for the wealthy and for big Pharma, Big Oil, and large corporations. I guess they believe that coal mines will magically reopen (they won’t), and that polluting the air they breathe and the water they drink won’t harm them or their kids, etc. Well, if they vote for Trump again in November, they won’t get what they want or need, but they will get what they deserve.
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I’ve noticed one theme common in many of the families I’ve met in rural America: “what’s good enough for me, is good enough for my kids.” In short, they want their kids to follow in their footsteps and they teach their kids that doing anything else is disrespecting their parents, their grandparents, and all the people who came before them. The parents here funnel their kids to the Community College rather than aiming for a 4-year college because “I have a certificate/associates degree and am doing just fine.” It’s the same in the South and in the coal mines and in the far north. Doing better than your parents is wrong. They live in the here and now, and don’t worry about future generations aside from their immediate family. Again, it comes back to “me and mine” versus “what is best for the whole.” Big Pharma, Big Oil, mean nothing to them. Being a roughneck is a great job that “let’s you see the world.” Big Pharma doesn’t exist, it’s a made-up snowflake liberal word. When you talk about large corporations, it comes down to the media they are fed. For example, my mother has been watching Fox News and conservative news for more than 7 years now and she thought Amazon produced it’s own goods and undercut all other competitors. In short, she believed every word she heard because she doesn’t understand how the business world has changed since she was last in it. Conservative news preys on the information deserts and ignorant by using words that resonant with them. It preys on the “you and yours” are under attack. “Your very way of life is under attack.” Once they have the “threat is very real and coming to get you” reaction secured, they show them Trump. He speaks their language, is human (makes mistakes), is white, is a family man (look, all his kids and their families work near him), and he will prevent those threats from reaching them. They will vote for Trump. Their adult children will vote for Trump. And he may very will win again because the last thing you do when talking to rural America is to insult their way of life. Name calling is not the way. Responding to them by denying or rejecting their devotion to faith is not the way. But it is the democrat way. The democrats embody that perceived threat–not China, not Russia, not even the Muslims anymore. Rural America is under attack by the people living around it. Democrats have rural America surrounded and, to them, rural America is the last bastion to their way of life.
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Most parents I know want their kids to do better, to have more opportunities, and to have a happy, successful life. I honestly can’t relate to the “if it was good enough for me, it will be good enough for my kids” mentality. I’m sorry, Teresa, but the people you are referring to are willfully ignorant and appear to be perfectly fine with staying that way.
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It’s not willful ignorance, just a different set of values and priorities. Neither is inherently better or worse.
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I respectfully disagree., Teresa. I think one set of values and priorities is inherently worse for the future of our country, especially if those values and priorities lead to Trump being re-elected.
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And to them, your set of values is different. Rather than saying one is inferior or the root of all that is wrong, is wrong on both sides and doesn’t work to solve the problem. Think of it this way, policies on agricultural yields and crop rotation has little direct impact on you, so those policies go unnoticed. Whereas policies on port-a-potties, food cart vendors, and rent controlled apartments has little direct impact on rural America. We can’t have a “one value to rule all” mentality. Republican individual and family values doesn’t destroy America any more than communal and social values. Rural America and urban America approach the same problem from two different perspectives, is all.
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Yes, different, for sure. But hoping that nothing will change and unrealistically clinging to that hope in a world that is, in fact, constantly changing, is futile. And supporting politicians (or leaders) whose interests are more self-serving than the interests of those they are supposed to be serving is self-defeating. I’m a pragmatist and I don’t think clinging to the past is in anyone’s interests.
Just because I am not a rural resident, doesn’t mean I am not interested in policies on agriculture, particularly where those policies promote toxic pesticides that seep into our ground water and poison it. I understand the value of crop rotation and also the potential threat that climate change can cause to our vital crops. I also understand that one value doesn’t rule all, but making an effort to understand policies and programs from a broader perspective and to put it in the context of one’s values in a thoughtful way, rather than just blindly accepting something like “If it was good enough for me…” mentality, is critical to our future. Coal mining jobs aren’t returning because Trump says so. Coal is destroying our environment and there are clean energy alternatives. By clinging to the hope that Trump will make coal mining jobs return, people are deluding themselves and hurting themselves. We live in a global economy, a global environment, and we can’t go back in time to the “good old days” because those good old days don’t exist anymore and never will. Perhaps at some point, we’ll be able to have good new days.
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It’s hard to convince people that change is good. I have lived in both rural and urban America. I have experienced racism in Lynchburg,VA and Elizabethtown, KY. I have experienced discrimination in Utah and Arizona. It is the young that will change social norms and values more than any policy ever could. However, both sides of the equation need to realize that the other’s opinions, values, and roots are just as valid as their own. I know that sense of equality is greatly lacking on both sides (especially on Twitter and other social media). Mass media, both sides, perpetuate the problem. For rural America, those “good old days” never left. The jobs did, but the people didn’t, and it’s the people who make them good. In their minds, it’s not broken. Rural America doesn’t understand urban America either. They don’t understand the desire to live stacked on top of each other in order to “live the good life” filled with fancy (expensive) things. The pursuit for the dollar is not important to them. What you have been, and are experiencing, is the same feelings they had for the eight years under Obama. Neither side is right or wrong. America will continue to grow and prosper, even in its divided state. Life isn’t about making everyone agree or one thinking they are better than the other. We’ve had clashes before and will have many more to come. Only the future will be able to look back and see truly where mistakes were made and who made them.
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“…both sides of the equation need to realize that the other’s opinions, values, and roots are just as valid as their own.”
Again, Teresa, I have to disagree with you, although I believe that people do believe their opinions and values are valid. However, values that include racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, sexism, white supremacy, white nationalism, etc. are not, in my opinion, valid values. These are hateful values that are taught, passed down from parents to children over generations and are now being reinforced by Donald Trump. I have never lived in a rural environment, as you have, but it is impossible for me to be convinced that those “values” I just listed are valid, no matter where you live.
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Just because something is wrong in the eyes of one, doesn’t make it invalid. Every idea has been seen as hateful and wrong to someone else. Not all Republicans are racist, just as not all Democrats are social justice warriors.
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You’re right, but many are, and many Republican policies, especially at the state and local levels (and since Trump, at the federal level) are. And for those people and policies that are racist, there is no way anyone could persuade me that being racist is a valid value.
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There is a difference between being valid and morally/socially correct. Morally correct is determined by the society at the time. Look at the Me Too movement that started in the 70s. It’s taken nearly 50 years to make headway into valid yet socially incorrect behavior. I live in a very Republican state and Utah is notoriously Republican. Many reprehensible polices are found in Democrat cities and states as well. Look no further than NYC’s stop and frisk laws. In Utah, it’s about promoting business rights and individual rights over societies norms and values. You can be kicked out of a mall and asked to leave a “public” place if you are not dressed gender appropriate in Salt Lake City. You are looking at valid as being accepted, and they are two different things. Columbus’ actions were considered valid (and still are by many) but is now considered socially unacceptable. Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club. Something that is laughed at now, yet is still not socially acceptable (even in his time). The point is, there are racists in every group and subgroup you can name. Their views are valid just as your views are valid. It doesn’t mean we have to agree. The question about validity in terms of human perception is individually and socially defined. It wasn’t too many years ago, both Democrats and Republicans agreed that Muslims were a threat to American life. Those opinions were seen as valid across the board until society changed because a few voices who saw through both arguments to the real problem grew into millions. However, those views are still present across the board. We have examples of valid yet reprehensible views in every corner of life. It just depends on where you want to look and how you want to look at things. We cannot solve the problems at hand if we are unable to accept the validity of another’s perception.
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I guess we simply have a different definition of “valid.” And yes, what is considered to be valid changes over time and by place. Slaughtering Native Americans, for example, was once accepted as valid behavior in the name of America’s Manifest Destiny. Owning slaves was once considered valid. But I’m talking about what is valid today in 21st century America. And I will never concede that racism, no matter where, is a valid value.
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That’s part of the problem. Discounting someone’s belief’s, no matter how reprehensible, as invalid makes any communication impossible and immediately sets a hostile position. That’s part of what Trump calls to in his rhetoric and it is why many Republican voters will vote to reelect him. Much like in 1861, a large portion of the population feels their core beliefs and way of life is being attacked. Racism, and what is considered racism, has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, even more so than in the 1950s. From their perspective, they truly are under attack by those who refuse to see their values as valid. One doesn’t have to agree with a racist, but one must understand that is as much a part of the individual as equality is to another. And that is something that is lacking on both sides of the fence.
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And the problem is that as long as racism is tolerated because some consider it as an acceptable fundamental value an individual has, we will never get beyond racism in this country. It’s the person who sees anyone who is not white as an “other” and as a “lesser” as a human being who is the lesser person. Are you suggested an equivalency in terms of moral validity between someone who espouses racism and someone who espouses equality between the races?
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Racism as a whole is a social norm and value which has been changing since the 50s. But permanent social change takes a lot of time. It took over 100 years for the suffrage movement. We are working on 50 years for women’s rights. No policy or protest or screaming how wrong someone is will make the process of change happen any faster. Listening, understanding, and working to change those core individual values is what changes social norms and values. Neither racism nor equality is socially morally better than the other because there are many systems of morality and society, as a whole, does not have a moral code of ethics. That’s why we say that the President of the United States is the moral center of the US. That’s why some advancement in changing social norms and values toward equality were more easily done (on a policy level) under Obama than under Trump. However, it will still take years for those changes to be permanent on a social level. Both racism and quality are valid perspectives. One is less desirable than the other, as a whole, so the question then becomes, how can we change the social norms and values of the one group to become something more desirable. The first step is not to eradicate racism through force (policy) or protest (destroying statues), but to address the many problems that lead to the development and support of racism. Listening to each group’s position. Understanding their position. And working toward a positive solution. This is systemic in so many ways that it’s inherent in social systems. African American scholars are teaching “it’s the white person’s fault you can’t read.” White scholars are teaching “it’s the black and brown person’s fault we have high crime.” Parents are teaching to hate on both sides of the fence. Until we leave the policy and forced change route, nothing will change. We need to address the individual. And to do that, we need to see that their position, their values, their thoughts are valid. It’s like in criminal psychology, they approach the criminal as a valid human being who has a position we need to understand to better learn how to stop the next one in the future. We need to know what makes them tick. You don’t do that by saying their beliefs and values are invalid.
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“Neither racism nor equality is socially morally better than the other because there are many systems of morality and society, as a whole, does not have a moral code of ethics.” Sorry, Teresa, but I don’t buy that equality is not morally better than racism, nor do I buy that society, as a whole, does not have a moral code of ethics. Our society embraces the morals of the Judeo-Christian ethics and values and of the so-called “Golden Rule” (i.e., “do unto others….). Not so much in the religious sense, but in the moral sense. Racism (and most of the other “isms”) runs counter to those Judeo-Christian values. And yet racism and bigotry and white supremacy are handed down from generation to generation because, as you stated in an earlier comment, “what was good enough for me should be good enough for my children.” While that racism and bigotry is not limited to rural areas, it’s more prevalent there because they are more set in their ways and are resistant to change (and to growth). But change is inevitable and before long, whites will be a minority in America and that’s just the way it is. It’s been more than 150 years since slavery ended in America. How many more years do people need before they can embrace the fact that we are all humans under the skin and we all, regardless of the color of our skin, deserve to be treated equally and with dignity? To do anything else — to be racist — is morally and ethically wrong and believing that racism is fine and practicing racism is a value that is (or should be) simply no longer valid in 21st century America. Period. End of story. Full stop.
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You are as set in your norms and values as your envisioned Republican racist. That is part of the division in America that began the whole discussion about rural America and urban America.
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Teresa, I grew up in a white, suburban neighborhood and went to schools through high school that were virtually all white. My father was a racist who used the N-word frequently and until I went off to college (and later, the army) and interacted with blacks, I thought of them as inferior beings. But I soon discovered that they are no different than I was. They weren’t inferior. They were just treated that way by many, if not most, whites. It was eye opening for me and I became appalled by the way I was indoctrinated by my father and just blindly accepted his racist perspective until I was almost 20.
I know that throughout this whole discussion, you haven’t been trying to defend or justify racism. You’ve been trying to help me to understand the perspectives of those who live in rural America. I do understand it. I grew up in a household where those same perspectives were prevalent. I know that they are just trying to defend their heritage, which they fear is rapidly disappearing. But the way defending their heritage manifests itself in racist behavior and bigotry is not justifiable and is wrong. The world is changing and the demographics of this country are changing. Racism is evil. It’s immoral. And it should t be about rural America versus Urban America. It’s about right versus wrong, moral versus immoral, decent versus indecent.
Unfortunately, what Trump and the Republicans are doing is blessing, not even tacitly, but blatantly, that it’s okay to be racist in America. It’s okay to hate “the other,” whether they have black, brown, or yellow skin. That it’s okay to hate anyone whose religion is different from their own. And you’re right, that resonates with many in Rural America. But that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it valid.
If we have an election in November, and if it’s a fair election and Trump loses, he has successfully ginned up his rabid base, many of whom live in rural America, to make it likely that violence will result and there will be bloodshed in the streets of America. That is what Trump has done and that is why I can’t understand, as I said in my original post, why two in five American still support Trump and why he still has a chance to be re-elected in November. So I appreciate your attempt to answer it.
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You conflate valid with being right. Which it isn’t. Validity and being right are two separate things. Remember though, not all Republicans are racist. Not all Republicans support Trump as an individual. Just like with Democrats, Republicans will vote along party lines. No poll accurately shows what Americans think or believe. Most of the Republicans the media fixates on is the fringe. The same holds true for Democrat media. Most rural Americans describe themselves as moderates. This holds true for urban America. Media is perpetuating the problem and making it seem much larger than it really is. Both urban and rural Americans want the same thing: live their lives the best way they can. Will we ever get rid of racism? Who knows. It’s ingrained in life and gets redefined with every generation. What will happen, though, is an influx of new voters who were 14, 15, 16, and 17 at the time of the last election. Those are the voters people need to reach. That’s why seeking permanent social change is preferred and why it takes so long to see the results of a generation’s efforts.
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You’re right, valid and right are two separate words, but their meanings aren’t mutually exclusive nor unrelated. When something is “valid,” it has a sound basis in logic or fact. When something is “right,” it is true or correct as a fact and/or is morally good, justified, or acceptable. I don’t see how you can say something is “right” and not be “valid.” And vice versa.
I never said or implied that ALL Republicans are racist. But more are than are not, apparently, and racism is much more prevalent in red states, may of which are predominantly rural, than it is in blue states. And yes, both urban and rural Americans want the same thing: live their lives the best way they can. But they have very different definitions of what that means. In one case it’s inclusive. In the other it’s exclusive.
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It’s inclusive only in the fact that demographic populations are different and population density is different. Salt Lake City is, for the most part, a Democrat city (because of population) but as racist as they come because of the LDS church. What we see on tv and online is the outlier of the community. That’s why it’s newsworthy. Like the documentary on Appalachia. Those producers had to look hard to find people who met their stereotype. It goes back to finding what your looking for and ignoring the rest. I think if you really looked hard at people and their lives, racists are in the minority.
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And I also grew up in a very racist household in a very Republican state. But I’ve also lived in 14 states and spent time in 48 (dang Hawaii and Alaska). Republican or Democrat, they want the same thing for their families, themselves, and their children. They go about it different ways. There is racism in every group in America. There is hatred in every group in America. We are, as a nation, too large and have too many differing needs.
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I just want to mention that I am a person of faith. And I commented a couple times below on such topics. I would hope that people would see through a “pastor” — for instance — who brings up the possibility that Trump is the (literal) antichrist but that, nevertheless, he (the man who calls himself a pastor) is glad to have voted for him and that he won the position of the presidency. So, I don’t reject faith. But people sort themselves either toward or away from truth.
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I really hope Trump doesn’t get re-elected, but I fear he will be. I guess as stupid as he is, he still has some appeal to others, whereas Biden is just boring.
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I’d rather a rational, boring person as POTUS than an irrational, unstable person.
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Agree but I think most Americans don’t. Either that or they’re radical leftists who vot for neither getting Trump to win.
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Not me! I cannot understand the psyche of these people
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Neither can I.
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😱😏
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Sorry I have no idea at all, it makes no sense that ,that man is still in power. But then politics all over the world makes no sense 😀💜
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I cannot fathom that 40%. What on earth is wrong with those people.
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Willful ignorance?
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Someone close to me now has Covid19.
Some of my friends WILL lose their homes in the next few months.
This is on Trump and I do NOT care to argue the point.
Elected or not, he has damaged lives so much I don’t know how or if they can ever truly recover,
THAT is Trump’s legacy no matter where his ample Trust Fundy Baby backside squats NEXT.
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Sorry about your friend. And yes, this is all on Trump.
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You may need an Exorcist. But then they’d have to get over the fence, across the lawn, through the doors, avoiding hundreds of service men. Then try to find it. (or him)
Sorry I watched THE EXHORSIST series on Netflix.
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I’m hoping the service men will have a way worked out to effect the transition after Biden🤞 is sworn in (with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States as per our Constitution). They won’t be losing their jobs, just working for the new president. Biden is one of the most conservative Democrats there is, other than the fact he goes with choice on the topic of abortion (which is all some Republicans appeal to even though it’s a pipe dream and many of them somehow live with judging and wishing for government control even though the behavior is right under their own rooves). I used to be politically “conservative.” Then I caught onto what is really happening in this country (long before Trump); I didn’t change because of the most divisive topic of abortion. I noticed the Republicans, more than that… the base that votes Republican even though they say they don’t like Republicans, are liars (and don’t seem to know it — such as when they argue against healthcare someone pays for being guaranteed to cover childbirth). The ones who know there is a (self-serving) program of lying (about the supposed values) are the big wigs who are all about the stock market and corporate subsidies and takeovers and mergers and so on. Even the land is being taken over by distant money-pushers and seed monopolists. And Trump has sent farm subsidies to Brazil from OUR money (not given to our farmers) as a “solution” (trickery) because of our own citizens hurting due to his trade war.
I still consider myself conservative in a true sense of the word — but also liberal in the tradition of the Enlightenment and so forth. I want to conserve our wiser ways! Ultimately, I think I’m progressive. Any of these words have historical problems though.
Okay, I obviously went on something of a rant. But I started out hopeful. I do hope there are enough people in our establishments who want t to carry our institutions based in the constitution (of which moving on with the presently-elected is key) into the future.
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😂
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😊
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I believe that it is because the type of people who voted for the Difficult Toddler are the type that cannot admit they are wrong. No truly new information about the Toddler has come out since they cast their votes.
The virus has shown some the weakness of the behaviors, but I guess not enough people have died, lost their jobs or homes yet, sad as that is to say.
We have become a nation where a very large segment of the population is extremely selfish, historically so in my opinion. It is not because we have lost religion, as some alt-right might claim. Those claiming Christianity have become the most selfish and callous, much more so than those who are more secular.
Congressman Jordan of Ohio comes to mind as an example of this hypocrisy, I speak specifically of his extremely rude and inconsiderate behavior when questioning Dr. Fauci this past week.
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😥
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Selfishness, unenlightened self-interests, and willful ignorance. Yup!
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Working with your 74% of Americans thinking Trump is taking the United States in the wrong direction, and the 40% figure for people who still support him, I come up with 14% of Americans (who participate in polls) not liking him but feeling compelled to vote Republican anyway. My closest cousins (who are sisters) have told me their mother (my mom’s sister) didn’t want to vote for Trump and didn’t like him but, in the end, said she couldn’t vote for the party of black people. I think that’s one reason. [And it is confounding to me; I had no idea she and my mother were racist until certain moments after I was grown — certainly, neither would consider herself racist.]
We could probably come up with fourteen different reasons. But I could maybe attribute five percent to people who are more interested in the stock market than the real economy. Another one percent for people who want to gut government for their own direct personal gain over their fellow Americans. I don’t know what percentage my aunt fits into; I know there are people who are more racist than she is. We might be up to twelve percent already. Although my mom is racist, I don’t think that had to be the reason for her to vote for him. She actually liked him, even if she wishes he wouldn’t tweet. Currently, she thinks he’s behaving consistently with law and order.
So, my mom is in the thirty percent. I think there are multiple subject areas that people are fooled about. It would be tiring to go into them. And then there are people who are willingly ignorant, the hypocritical, those who never seek to address the cognitive dissonance, and those who just don’t tune into reality but cling to ideology. There are also people, I’m sure, who actually don’t like either party. Still, the risks are putridly high with this guy, so I don’t see how he’s an option… except we go back to ignorant, hypocritical, and so on and so forth. One pastor I’ve blogged with some said Donald Trump could be the antichrist BUT that we had dodged a bullet electing him.
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Wait. I just looked at the math again… got it wrong, right? My mom is in the twenty-six percent.
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I’m going to take another shot at this. She’s in the twenty-six percent because she (my mother) voted for him, and will do again, without holding her nose. She’s in the forty percent because of being of the group that will vote for him under any condition so far. I’m going to “make” the thirty percent [I invented by mistake] into something by imagining a vin diagram where there are racists among both those who gladly vote for him and those who do vote for him but don’t like something else about him (or hold their nose). That puts my aunt in the thirty percent, too, as well as the forty percent, and the fourteen — rather than twenty-six — percent (even while, as someone who had to hold her nose, she [my aunt] is also in maybe a two percentage grouping, being a somewhat racist person… with an imagined four percentage grouping being more racist than she is and willing to vote for him even if they don’t like him personally or in some other policy or attitudinal area). All my own numbers are made up, but the observations aren’t. [I made almost no attemp at explaining the last two percent among the full fourteen, not the exact distribution of the pretend thirty percent. And I’m plainly just fooling around.]😜
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All this math! Yikes.
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I just sort of got carried away with it, for no real reason at all. But it was kinda fun. 🤷♀️
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Daniel Villareeal of Newsweek: Roughly 50% of white voters would vote to re-elect Republican President Donald Trump if the election were held today, according to a new poll by Hill-HarrisX.
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More from that same source: Trump led Biden amongst male voters 45 to 43%, Midwest voters 42 to 39%, Independent voters 35 to 33%, voters earning above $75,000 a year by 48 to 39% and voters aged 35 to 49 by a margin of 44 to 37%.
[There appears to be something — among other things — of an effort included, there, to see what the heart of generation X is up to.]
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I don’t get why he’s leading with independents, those earning above $75k, or those in the 35-49 year age group. How can that be?
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It’s possible the numbers for Independents are within a margin of error (although that could shake out either way). Other polls have shown the reverse. It also looks like more of them are undecided. (I’m making an assumption that less than a hundred percent being reported reflects indecision.)
As for people in the pay grouping indicated, I tend to think too many Americans have been encouraged to be self-absorbed when at all comfortable. Maybe those below the level who took a shot with him before are seeing that they are not better off than they were “four years ago.”
I don’t know what to say about the age group mentioned.
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Better punctuation for better clarity: those below the level, who took a shot with him before, are seeing that they are not better off than they were …
(Or even if they are just barely under that 75,000 marker, they still retain a memory with some empathy of what it’s like to not be there.)
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🤦🏼♂️
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Democracy is a flawed beast.
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And apparently a lot more fragile than many of us thought.
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Fragile also are our rights to a fair go
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